Right on cue, we have this from the guy at electoral-vote.com:
Quote:
Guru Charlie Cook wrote an interesting piece on the presidential election based on his recent travels throughout the South and also on the results of a focus group. The group didn't debate Obama vs. McCain at all. They debated: Obama: ready or not? The people who supported McCain didn't praise his long service to the country, his experience, or anything like that. They just didn't think Obama was up to the job and McCain was the only other man left standing. Cook's conclusion is that this election is Obama's to win or lose. If Obama can convince enough people that they can trust him to make the right decisions, he will be the 44th President of the United States and there is little McCain can do about it. This is no doubt the reason Obama has been tacking to the center of late, to convince suburban housewives in the Midwest that he will keep their children safe.
In this way, the 2008 election is like the 1980 election, in which Ronald Reagan was initially seen as some wacko right-wing nutcake who might start World War III. People were tired of Jimmy Carter but they didn't trust Reagan. In the first TV debate, Reagan came over as a reasonable person who was not about to do anything crazy. That was the end of Carter.
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